This book contains all of the material that would generally be covered in a Freshman or Sophomore Linear Algebra course. The section on vectors is quite extensive, and would be excellent to use in a Freshman course that needed to introduce vectors very early for use in Engineering courses. On the other hand, the sections on Linear Transformations and Eigenvalues are exactly what I would want to see in a Sophomore course that was designed more for mathematicians. The section on abstract vector spaces I find somewhat deficient for a more theoretical course.

Accuracy rating: 5

The content is fully accurate. The theorems and proofs that are provided in each section are presented with precision, and yet easy to read.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The fundamental courses of mathematics are not generally given to change, but Linear Algebra perhaps more than the rest does need to keep itself updated with the rapidly changing field of Numerical Analysis. I think that Kuttler has done an excellent job of keeping up with the current methods, but has not written in such a way as to make the text dependent on any particular numerical methods that are in vogue.

Clarity rating: 5

I like very much the style of writing and even the formatting of headers and content titles. I found it very readable and easy to find what I was looking for.

Consistency rating: 4

I did not detect any inconsistency in the way that the material was presented. The only thing that might be considered an inconsistency is that Subspaces and presented in the text prior to vector spaces. It is somewhat unnatural to define the subspace of something that is not defined as yet, but sadly it has become somewhat commonplace to do things in this way.

Modularity rating: 5

The sections of the book are easily adaptable. I did like the fact that the section on vector spaces was written in a way to be included earlier if desired.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

Other than this issue with the section on vector spaces, I found the organization and flow of topics to be quite natural. Each topic comes in its proper place, but not in such a way as to detract from its adaptability.

Interface rating: 5

I like the way that sections and headings and theorems all are very descriptive, but also numbered, so that they can be easily found.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I did not find any grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

I don't think there was any instance of cultural insensitivity.

Comments

Exercises are provided at the end of each major section, and I found them to be ample both in quantity and in terms of the level of difficulty.

In my experience, text book works extremely well with the learning outcomes defined by my institution for entry level linear algebra course. For my students, textbook provides a foundation for the course. Techniques to solve the problems are easy to follow and build upon as the topics gets harder

Accuracy rating: 5

Upon an initial review I found no obvious errors.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Content is up-to-date and should stay relevant for a long while

Clarity rating: 5

Text provides detailed instruction to solve the problems.

Consistency rating: 5

Text stays consistent throughout with definitions, solutions and responses. Students get used to the pattern of solving the problems

Modularity rating: 5

Text book can be taught using sections and subsections without creating much confusion. Few chapters that are interconnected may need extra care to rearrange since students would need to have some basic understand of the concept.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Flow of the chapters fits the learning outcomes needed to incorporate.

Interface rating: 5

I have viewed it online only and it works very well on a computer screen.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

Upon initial review, No spelling or grammar errors were encountered.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

Math has a great flexibility when it comes to being culturally relevant. An inclusion of socially conscious everyday problems may help students with the following question- when would I use this math in real life.

Comments

N/A

Reviewed by Joyce O'Halloran, Professor, Portland State University, on 1/8/2016.

The book includes all the topics we require in our introductory linear algebra course. read more

I found no grammatical errors, but a typo on p. 70:
Above Example 2.20, it reads ...product AB maybe be...

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

Not offensive, but could have included examples/exercises that were multicultural.

Comments

I plan to propose that we adopt this text as our required text for our introductory linear algebra course.
On p. 293, when defining basic eigenvectors, I would like to see them referred to as "basic eigenvectors associated with lambda". Then the following sentence is true.
I find the title of Cor. 9.28 confusing; maybe "length of bases" would work better.

Reviewed by Scott Kaschner, Teaching Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Arizona, on 6/11/2015.

This text covers all the material an instructor could want to include in an introductory Linear Algebra course. The first three chapters (Systems of read more

This text covers all the material an instructor could want to include in an introductory Linear Algebra course. The first three chapters (Systems of Equations, Matrices, and Determinants) are standard in any introductory Linear Algebra course, but the content of the remainder of such courses varies quite a bit. The subsequent chapters of this book are each pretty well self-contained, so it would be pretty easy to adapt the content to a particular curriculum.
There is no glossary, and the index, while short, seems to be comprehensive.

Accuracy rating: 5

The book is over 400 pages, so I have not proof-read the entire book. However, a few hours of reading revealed no errors or inaccuracies. It is clear the author took great care with the presentation of the material, so I didn't expect there to be a significant number of errors.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The material is so fundamental in mathematics, and this book covers all the important topics. Relevance/longevity will not be an issue.

Clarity rating: 5

The clarity of the writing is what I find most appealing about this book. The proofs are all included and easy to read. This book would be suitable for students' first exposure to proofs. There are also plenty of thorough examples. Terminology is always an issue with students in this subject, but the author has used a color scheme to identify definition boxes in the text and differentiate them from examples, theorems, etc.
Linear Algebra texts often suffer from aggressive detail paid to procedure and computation. This book includes a lot of prose to motivate technical procedures. While it increases the length of the text, it is done very well.

Consistency rating: 5

For this particular subject, consistency in terminology is essential. There is some redundancy for the purposes of increasing modularity of the latter half of the book, but the consistency of the terminology and framework of the book is nonetheless first-rate.

Modularity rating: 5

The modularity of this book is quite good, and this is of particular importance for this particular subject. One could very easily reorder the chapters of the book to fit their curriculum.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The presentation of the topics in this book is thorough almost to a fault. While the exposition is quite clear and there are many great examples and explanations, the overall length could be intimidating to some students. To cover all the material one in an average one semester introductory Linear Algebra course, one could have over 300 pages of mathematics text for their students to read. Depending on the course/students, this could be an issue. Despite its length, though, it is both extremely well-organized and easy to read.

Interface rating: 3

The diagrams in this book are great, though there aren't a lot of them in the first half of the book. The geometric intuition in this subject is extremely important and difficult to convey, and this book does a sufficient job. This is in part due to the great modularity of the book. The geometric interpretations of matrices and determinants are left for the chapters in the second half of the book; it makes for a very algebra-heavy first three chapters.
Navigation in the book is very good. I would like to have all terminology hyperlinked to its definition box, but other than that, everything else is hyperlinked.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I found no grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

Cultural relevance is not an issue for this book.

Comments

I like this book quite a lot. For instructors dissatisfied with their ability to reorder standard Linear Algebra texts to suit their needs, this provides a very nice alternative. It would be easy to adapt to any introductory curriculum. There are plenty of very nice exercises. The one missing element that I like in Linear Algebra exercises is True/False; aside from supplementing for that, one could use these exercises exclusively. There is no use of technology (MATLAB, Maple, calculator, etc.) integrated into this text.

Table of Contents

Contents
Preface
1 Systems of Equations

1.1 Systems of Equations, Geometry

1.2 Systems Of Equations, Algebraic Procedures

2 Matrices

2.1 Matrix Arithmetic

2.2 LU Factorization

3 Determinants

3.1 Basic Techniques and Properties

3.2 Applications of the Determinant

4 R^n

4.1 Vectors in R^n

4.2 Algebra in R^n

4.3 Geometric Meaning of Vector Addition

4.4 Length of a Vector

4.5 Geometric Meaning of Scalar Multiplication

4.6 Parametric Lines

4.7 The Dot Product

4.8 Planes in R^n

4.9 The Cross Product

4.10 Spanning, Linear Independence and Basis in R^n

4.11 Orthogonality and the Gram Schmidt Process

4.12 Applications

5 Linear Transformations

5.1 Linear Transformations

5.2 The Matrix of a Linear Transformation I

5.3 Properties of Linear Transformations

5.4 Special Linear Transformations in R^2

5.5 One to One and Onto Transformations

5.6 Isomorphisms

5.7 The Kernel And Image Of A Linear Map

5.8 The Matrix of a Linear Transformation II

5.9 The General Solution of a Linear System

6 Complex Numbers

6.1 Complex Numbers

6.2 Polar Form

6.3 Roots of Complex Numbers

6.4 The Quadratic Formula

7 Spectral Theory

7.1 Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors of a Matrix

7.2 Diagonalization

7.3 Applications of Spectral Theory

7.4 Orthogonality

8 Some Curvilinear Coordinate Systems

8.1 Polar Coordinates and Polar Graphs

8.2 Spherical and Cylindrical Coordinates

9 Vector Spaces

9.1 Algebraic Considerations

9.2 Spanning Sets

9.3 Linear Independence

9.4 Subspaces and Basis

9.5 Sums and Intersections

9.6 Linear Transformations

9.7 Isomorphisms

9.8 The Kernel And Image Of A Linear Map

9.9 The Matrix of a Linear Transformation

A Some Prerequisite Topics

A.1 Sets and Set Notation

A.2 Well Ordering and Induction

B Selected Exercise Answers Index

About the Book

This text, originally by K. Kuttler, has been redesigned by the Lyryx editorial team as a first course in linear algebra for science and engineering students who have an understanding of basic algebra.

All major topics of linear algebra are available in detail, as well as proofs of important theorems. In addition, connections to topics covered in advanced courses are introduced. The text is designed in a modular fashion to maximize flexibility and facilitate adaptation to a given course outline and student profile.

Each chapter begins with a list of student learning outcomes, and examples and diagrams are given throughout the text to reinforce ideas and provide guidance on how to approach various problems. Suggested exercises are included at the end of each section, with selected answers at the end of the text.

Lyryx develops and supports open texts, with editorial services to adapt the text for each particular course. In addition, Lyryx provides content-specific formative online assessment, a wide variety of supplements, and in-house support available 7 days/week for both students and instructors.

About the Contributors

Author(s)

Ken Kuttler, Professor of Mathematics at Bringham Young University. University of Texas at Austin, Ph.D. in Mathematics.